Squad 403: The Ascetic (remastered) Part 2 of 5
Oh look, a new story. What should you do? Read it. eeyup. Stay in school kids. Chapter 1 "Visiting hours are now over, 712," Says the medical AI. "Acknowledged," I say. I take one last look at the rest of Squad 403, all of them on tables, barely alive. How could I have failed so badly? Will dead, and the rest of them close to it. I stand and close the door on my way out. I walk towards the training station, I need to blow off some steam. *** I walk into the vast training section. I head for presicison weapons, even though in my state I won't hit anything. Two spartans are already there. They seem to be doing well enough on the moving target challenge, hitting a few of the high speed cones. I calmly grab a sniper rifle off the wall and nail 4 of the cones. One shot for each cone. I drop the clip and reload. The two spartans stand in disbelief, finally, one of them speaks, "How did you even-" "Practice," I say. I fire again, bringing down four more cones. "Heard that cruiser got taken out," the other says, "That you?" "Me and the rest of 403, yes," I mutter calmly. I've entered the dream-like state brought on by looking through a scope. "It's an honor to meet you, Nikki-038," she introduces. "Alex-712," I say to her. "I'm Eden-224," says the other one. "Well it's my honor to-" my cordial greeting is cut short but alarms blaring. "ATTENTION ALL HANDS," screams an automated voice, "WE ARE UNDER ATTACK. COVENANT FORCES HAVE BREACHED THE AIR LOCK, THIS IS NOT A DRILL." Chapter 2 Me, Eden, and Nikki grab some real weapons and dash to the air locks. When we get there, the battle is almost lost. Only about five marines are holding of ten ranger elites. I unsling my DMR and fire on one of the rangers. Nikki opens up with an assault rifle. Eden fumbles with a grenade launcher. Then something strolls out of the covenant boarding chute. I've seen it before. The same elite that almost killed me and my squad. Before me stands the Ascetic. He draws a needle rifle, and with 5 shots, there are suddenly no more marines in the hallway. He bares down on the three of us. Eden fires a single shot before he knocks her unconsious with the butt of his rifle. Nikki jams her rifle into his mouth, and empties the clip. It does nothing. He grabs the rifle and swings the handle over her head. Nikki collapses. He throws me to the ground and prepares to stab me with an energy dagger. I close my eyes and prepare to die. But something rams the Ascetic in the chest. The bullet doesn't break his shields, but sure made him back up. In a heart beat, three more shots fire, all direct hits. Then I get a look at my savior. At the end of the hall stands a lone spartan, an empty sniper rifle at his feet, firing a SAW machine gun at the Ascetic. He empties the clip and slaps in a new one, in about a second. The numerous shots actually break the Ascetic's shield! I reach for my DMR, but before I can finish the elite, hes already gone, down the airlock. Chapter 3 The spartan offers his hand and I take it. He pulls me up suprisingly easily, considering he's not much bigger than me. "Thank you, for saving my life," I say, picking up my shotgun. "No problem," he says, "Spartan Andrew-908, call me AK." "Well, AK, we need to move these two," I say, gesturing to Eden and Nikki. We manage to wake them up and get them on their feet. Then some more alarms blare. A message pops up on my HUD, I hear the alert on the other's helmets. I read it quickly. All available spartans, attention, this is a priority one hail, Covie forces are attacking the engine room, if you don't stop them the whole station will collapse. We need you there now! The others load their weapons. We're just barely to the engine room when we hear the engines shudder and explode. "Naww crap, we're too late!" says AK. Then guess who breaks open the door. Yep, the Ascetic. Again. "AK, take Eden and Nikki, get to an evac bird, I got this." I say. The others back down the hallway and dash off. I unsling my shotgun. The Ascetic loads his needle rifle. I see an air lock release switch, and I get an idea. I jump forward and pound the release. With a roar, we're both sucked out into space. Chapter 4 I'm the first one to regain control. I switch my shotty for a DMR and hopelessy plug away at the Ascetic. All I can do is distract him, and hope his helmet isn't sealed. Well of course it is. He calmly fires shot after shot at me. Only with my Zero-gee manuevering skills do I survive. I take a look at the slowly disentegrating station. The engines tear themselves apart. Their sre still humans in there. My Squad is in there. Then I realize, I can't help them. I can't help any of them. I realize how fruitless this is. I can't stop this elite, nothing can, he's just too strong. Well, turns out some stuff can stop him, kinda. At that moment, a UNSC Pelican dropship speeds out of the station and slams into the Ascetic. He is sent tumbling through space, on a course to hit the nearby covie cruiser. I float in astonishment, and stare gaping as the back of the dropship opens. AK grabs me and pulls me into the troop bay. I'm astonished. Inside, are my teammates. All of them, minus Will and that other spartan, Eden. Nikki tends over Hunter. She looks up, "Glad you could make it," she says. "How did you all get out so quickly?" I ask. "Simple," says a voice from the cockpit, "That'd be all me." I look and see Eden behind the controls of the pelican, flying it smoothly away. AK speaks up, "We rigged a little suprise for our covie guests." At that moment, a small arsenal of human missles destroy the station, taking almost half of the cruiser with it. I feel a bit better that we did as much damage to the covies as possible, but as the dropship flies away, I can't help but feel guilty about the lives that have been lost. Category:Army Category:Completed Category:Action Category:Halo Category:Sci-Fi